Smaller class sizes of little help:
report
The Calgary Herald
Wed 24 Aug 2005

Page: A6
Section: News
Byline: Armando D'Andrea
Source: CanWest
News Service

There is no "solid base" to suggest smaller class sizes
boost academic achievement for Canadian elementary and secondary school
students, according to a report released Tuesday by the C.D. Howe Institute.

The report also suggested that millions of dollars spent in education systems
across the country to lower class sizes would be better used elsewhere, for
example on improving teacher training and development.

But the study has aggravated teachers union executives who say the report is
out of touch with classroom reality, and that reducing class size is an
effective way to maximize the education process for children.

The report criticizes this strategy on the basis of studies completed over
the course of the past 30 years, which it said showed "no solid base of
empirical evidence to show that smaller classes improve student achievement.

"Because reducing class size is enormously expensive, it is very likely that
the money being spent there could be better spent on other educational policies,
such as continuous teacher training, which, unlike class size reduction, have
been shown to improve student performance," the report said.

The report reviewed a Canadian study from the 1970s that focused on four
classes ranging in size from 16 students to 37 students, and found that "there
were no significant differences attributable to class size for achievement in
art, composition, vocabulary, reading and mathematics problem solving" between
the class with 16 students and that with 37.

The report also cited studies from the U.S., which it said showed a decline
in student/teacher ratios without a corresponding increase in student
achievement.

According to the report, an international study showed countries such as
South Korea, with larger class sizes, outperformed in math richer countries such
as the U.S. and Canada, where class sizes were smaller.

The report also suggested that part of the reason lowering class sizes did
not correlate with improvements in student performance was due to the quality of
the teachers hired to help lower the numbers.

"Reducing class size invariably means increasing the number of teachers, and
it may be that hiring more teachers forces a school, board or jurisdiction to
dip into the pool of less-able teachers," it said.

C.D. Howe Institute policy
analyst Yvan Guillemette told the National Post on Tuesday that
while in some cases class-size reduction may be useful, it should not be used as
a "blanket strategy" to improve education.

"It's so expensive . . . I think it just helps teachers more than students,"
he said.

The report drew a sharp response from the teaching profession.

Winston Carter, president-designate of the Canadian Federation of Teachers,
dismissed the study, saying a series of other reports from the U.S. have
confirmed "without a doubt" that smaller classes create a richer learning
environment for children and a better teaching environment for instructors.

Edition: Final
Story Type: News
Length: 466
words